worst sales advice The absolutely

f wns RECENTLv nsxeo what's the worst single piece of ladvice to a salesperson I've ever heard. Wow. I loved this question. I don't think I'd ever been asked it before.

I can't identify just one single piece of advice. I'll have to opt for two. I'm going to identify them, and then explain why I think they are so damaging. They are "Be yourself' and "Learn on your own by trial and error."

1. Be yourself.

I just read, on one of the Linkedln groups of which I am a member, a newly self-appointed sales trainer advising salespeople to 'Just be yourself." That is good advice if you are naturally self-motivated, goal-driven, and highly organized; if you are intelligent, personable, empathetic and sensitive; if you have great listening skills, and if you possess the ability to connect with anyone, paint word pictures, tell enthralling stories, and ask for action.

If that's not you, then being yourself isn't quite good enough. You'll have to work on some things if you want to become better. Almost every salesperson I have ever met, myself included, has some rough spots that should be smoothed out.

As a professional salesperson, you are never finished with your lifelong task of making yourself better. The ulti- mate challenge for professionals is the constant need to change themselves in order to become better. It takes drive, discipline and energy, continually applied and rightly focused, to improve.

"You're okay the way you are" may be an idea instilled in you by your mother in order to make you feel good about yourself, but in the real world of commerce and sales, it is a bromine that takes the energy out of the process of improving yourself, and provides an easy hiding place for those who are not motivated to excel.

The truth is, you are not good enough! Not yet.

If you are a professional, you get that. You understand that you can, and should, continually improve and make yourself better.

Vince Lombardi said, "We will constantly strive for perfection, knowing full well that we will never attain it, because no one is perfect. But we will strive for perfection, for in the process we will catch excellence."

Which would you rather? A sales force of people who think they just need to "be themselves" to do well. Or a group that thinks they can always become better, that there standards for how you do sales well, and that they need to work hard and consistently to enhance their skills, improve their practices, and develop their competencies. A group who strives for perfection.

Silly question. If a sales trainer tells you that you just need to "be yourself," run from them.

2. Learn on you own, by trial and error.

Certainly, learning by trial and error is possible. We all do it. It just isn't very efficient, nor very effective. When I say it isn't very efficient, I mean that there are quicker, easier ways to learn and improve than to rely exclusively on trial and error. Look, other people have gone before you and figured out this thing called "sales." There is a body of knowledge about how you do sales well. You can spend five years trying to figure it out on your own or you can buy a book, by someone who is an expert in it, and learn far more in five hours. Which makes more sense?

For the life of me, I cannot understand the prevailing idea among employers that their salespeople will just learn on their own, by trial and error. From my personal experience, I believe that only about 5Vo of employers actually invest in the growth and development of their salespeople.

Nor do I understand the 95Vo of salespeople who have not spent $20 on their own improvement in the last 12 months.

I am amazed that so many people think they have the time to learn exclusively by trial and error. I don't. When I first began my consulting practice, I went out and got all the books on how you build a consulting practice. When I first starting speaking and presenting, I hired a coach to help me develop quickly. When I wrote my first book, I read all the books on how you do it before I began to write it. I couldn't afford to waste time and money making stupid mistakes.

When I say it isn't very effective, I Eet valuable seruice from experts who understand gou.

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